The Mark of Athena  Chapter 1
by irocklike a star
Summary: This is awesome! I've always wanted to do this! So, this is what happens in the first chapter of The Mark of Athena. In my perspective, anyway.


Percy led his friends out, arms still over both of their shoulders, Hazel and Frank looking as nervous as ever. Apparently, they were a little anxious to meet his family. Not him. He missed his family so much he thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown right then and there.

Annabeth. She was on that ship. Waiting on that wicked warship that was floating a hundred feet above the ground. He could almost hear her voice up there, calling his name.

Percy hoped that it was real and not his imagination as he thought, but all he could hear was the soft buzz of gears whirling inside the Argo ll and the silence as the crowd underneath waited with bated breath for the ship to land and for it's passengers to come out. Although, by the way Octavian was conversing with a senior veteran who frowned up at the golden ship, Percy could tell Octavian was still trying get some people on his side of the argument.

Everyone's heads must be aching from looking up so long, watching the ship descend. The first things people really saw must have been that massive metal dragon's head that was fixed comfortably on the front of the ship as it's figurehead. The second thing must have been a curly-haired guy's head that was sticking out over the stern. He had an impish face, black, curly-hair and big, wide eyes that made you seriously wonder if that kid was on a whole lot of caffeine.

Leo. Hazel let out a whimper and Percy could kind of understand what she was going through, in a weird way. He was grinning down at us and then shouted out ," Yo, CJ! What's up?" Then, looking back on the deck and nodding when a voice exclaimed something, he called out

" People," then looking at the Lars ," and the undead, if you want to not consider getting crushed by a giant flying ship... I suggest to move back as far as you can to give this ship some landing space and to not trip over your togas in the process!" He seemed to be snickering at his own joke. Then he disappeared inside the ship.

The first thing Percy thought after that incident was ' Wow. Is that dude a nutjob that makes the weirdest jokes?'

Surprisingly,all the Lares and nonLares heeded Leo's , again, weird warning and cleared out a bit, just big enough for an XXXXXXL warship to land in the forum. As soon as the warship landed, a previously, extra-quiet Terminus shrieked and started yelling " Weapons! Weapons! Haven't I already told you punks there are NO weapons inside the city limits! Don't make me come there and wring you with my bare hands!"

As always, the poor half-statue of the god of boundaries was in his usual rant and no-one gave him a second glance. Terminus wouldn't be Terminus without his persisting complaints.

The inside of the warship was as normal as how a normal old-fashioned ship would be, with a wooden deck, a cabin in the middle and a seriously high mast with that white flag of truce at the top of the highest. But still, Percy thought this ship was really impressive and the bronze shields lining the sides of the ship had weird intricate designs that he never saw before and they looked new, like the Cyclops forges deep under the sea had crafted the shields just for the Argo ll . The crowd seemed shocked when they saw the shields. Octavian gave me a smug look when he started saying that a ship wouldn't be that decorated unless it was for an attack and everyone started listening to him.

Percy couldn't believe it. Leo was just all happy-wavy from the deck a few minutes ago and they still listened to that scarecrow of a guy. Next time Percy's alone in a room with Octavian, he's seriously gonna give that dude the face punch of his life. We'll see how smug he is then.

Only Leo and a blond-haired kid Percy supposed was Jason stood on the deck. Jason waved to the crowd and everyone made a collective gasp. He ignored it and jumped off the deck. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Julia ran up to him and locked his legs in a big hug. Jason smiled and ruffled her hair. At first, the crowd just stood there. Then, a few campers from the fifth cohort who had managed to get here in time came up and gave him individual hugs.

Then, laughing and talking, Jason and the campers waded through the crowd. The crowd seemed to forget it's unrest and swarmed over Jason like old family friends. Reyna just stood there, arms folded, looking at the crowd as if she wanted to kill each and every person in there.

Meanwhile, Leo was knocking on the cabin door hollering " Wake up, sleepy-heads!" A mildly annoyed-looking Thalia opened the door and clenched her fist as if she were gonna punch him. Then, she realized where the ship was, retreated back inside and came back with the whole crew. There was Grover, looking as goatish as ever, wearing nothing but a T-shirt that said MONEY'S KILLING THE WORLD! He looked at Percy and grinned, jumping over the side of the boat immediately and running over to give him an awkward hug.

Percy introduced Grover to Hazel who smiled and shook his hand.

Frank asked ," Are you gonna ask me for money?" He raised both his hands." Cause I don't have any money."

Grover raised his eyebrows. Percy smiled and shook my head. " Grover, this is Frank."

" Nice to meet you dude," Frank said.

There was a girl standing on the deck Percy only recognised from a dream where he saw Leo trying to fix a smoking Argo ll. She was staring at the crowd , or it could just have been Jason.

She had chocolate-brown uneven-chopped hair and even from this distance, Percy could recognise that she was a daughter of Aphrodite clearly. Clarisse was there too. She still looked like herself, maybe a little taller, though Percy couldn't conclude if that was good or bad.

And there was Annabeth who squinted and raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Annabeth had harsh purple shadows under her eyes as if she had went a few days at the least without sleep. But Percy felt a little sad and he realised he had missed her a lot more that he let himself believe.

She didn't seem to have noticed him yet. Leo jumped off the ship, put his hands on his hips, and said," So this is New Rome, huh? A dude could learn to appreciate this place! ," .

Then, Annabeth noticed Percy, her eyes widened and he barely had time before she tackled him in a huge bear hug. Then, surprising him, she gave him a kiss. Percy swears everything around him started switching to slow-mo.

Then Clarisse snickered and said ," You two should get a room."Then the moment broke. Percy gave Clarisse a dagger stare which she easily countered. Then she smiled.

Oookaay. Now that's SERIOUSLY weird. And Percy had seen a lot of weird things for the past few years.

" Pe-," Annabeth stopped her eyes widening again," Percy, you _do _remember me,...right?" Percy decided to play her for a while.

He stepped back from her hug.

" Um... who _are_ you?" Percy figured this was gonna come back and bite him in the _podex_ someday, but he just couldn't stop himself.

" You don't remember me at all?" Her voice was cracking.

" No, not really," he shrugged.

" Oh," Her voice was small. She turned to walk away but Percy stopped her by grabbing her arm and pulling her in for a hug again.

" Annabeth, I totally remember you. I was just kidding. Sorry " I heard her sigh. "Percy, you..."

"Dimwit!," Annabeth said, keeping Percy at arm's length," I told you to stay where you are! Instead you go on this quest and I don't even know if you'll come back alive!"

"But,Annabeth-", "No buts at all, Seaweed Brain," she replied, ferocity and a little bit of emotion being tried to be masked in her stormy eyes.

" Ouch," Leo said.

Thankfully, the crowd was already engaged with Jason. More campers had come and joined in the welcome.

The brown-haired girl cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. " Uh,yeah... anyway, I'm Piper, that's Leo," she said pointing to Leo," well, you know that's Jason." She went on to introduce the rest of the crew.

Thalia winked at me and mouthed," Stay sharp, seaweed for brains."


End file.
